7 Quick Takes on… Lost, or….

I had to go back to the island.

I have been intending to write about my Lost rewatch as a separate post, but here we are on a Thursday night, having just finished two more episodes, then the boys to bed and me on the Internet obsessively reading Lost stuff like it’s 2005 again and…geez.

I had watched Lost on its first airing along with a whole lot of other people. I don’t think I started from the very beginning, being influenced, as I recall, by a snarky article, the gist of which was something like, “Okay, let me get this straight – the entire UCLA volleyball team crashes on a desert island and….?”

But I did eventually start …and finish, with a couple year break, mostly with my daughter. We were talking about it recently and she was remembering how wrecked she was at school the day after an episode featuring a certain character’s death. At the time, I was thoroughly engaged by the show ,even as I was mostly thoroughly confused. But that’s not surprising and pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things, considering how easily confused I am by most television plots that don’t go straight from A to B. Not a visual learner.
And then it was over, and considering that I am not generally a person who rewatches things and that there’s been enough very good television since 2011 to entertain me for a few hours a week, it wasn’t something I even considered.

But then the boys got older….

We don’t watch much episodic television around here. Up until some point last year, they had a few animated series they watched, but even those have largely fallen off the DVR at this point. They watch exactly 0 – zero – “regular” television series, either on broadcast or cable. On repeat, they watched all of Malcolm in the Middle and then most of The Office (don’t judge) over the past year, and when that was over, they turned me to me and said, “Now what can we watch?”

A year or so ago, the thought of rewatching Lost with them had occurred to me, but I had dismissed it for a couple of reasons. First, I do try to minimize screen time and I knew that it would be totally addicting. Secondly, I wondered about the whole issue of frustration. Lost raises many questions and mysteries and really doesn’t answer all of them, and then it got really strange, of course, and the ending didn’t please everyone – although I was okay with it at the time. I didn’t know if I would be bringing them into something that would absorb them but then ultimately just leave them feeling betrayed.

But then one night I rewatched the pilot myself and there was no question. Yup. We’re watching Lost. I don’t know how anyone could watch that pilot and not want to go on.

So where are we? Almost at the end of season 2, and I have to say, our time watching Lost is just incredibly, deeply enjoyable and satisfying. We’ve got a while to go, obviously, but I’m already sad knowing that it will come to an end.

One of my favorite quotes from Flannery O’Connor – and I have many – is one that I actually have framed, having purchased the little print at Andalusia some years ago.

Total non-retention has kept my education from being a burden to me.

Me. In every way. Including, as I am discovering, Lost.

I mean, I remember the main points and the big beats, but hardly anything else. It’s intensely, even insanely entertaining to be re-immersed in this world.

Yes, there are some a few useless characters. Yes, there’s plotting nonsense and dead ends. Yes, it’s network, pop television. But when you look at it as a show about human beings being given a chance for redemption and wholeness…yes.

And this is how we’re experiencing it. No, I’m not being heavy-handed with study guides and endless teachable moments, but guys…there are teachable moments. Lots of them. For this is what I think Lost is about, and this is how I’ve framed it for them.

Lost is us, right here in this moment, wherever we are. Here we are, dropped on an island. There’s weird, undefinable, unending mystery churning around us. All kinds of crazy things are happening, and who knows why? There seems to be a purpose, and there seems to be the possibility of great goodness, but there’s also evil. When we stop and listen to each other’s stories, we find that we are connected to each other in surprising ways. And so we’re here, brought here to this moment by this strange combination of the flow of life, chance, what’s been done to us, and our own choices. But here we are, together. What are we going to do about it? How are we going to live now?

The flashbacks that formed an important part of the first three seasons’ structure offer another essential aspect: how our pasts affect us. Which, of course, is a huge part of the Lost story, as the primary characters are brought to this place where, ironically, they must deal with their pasts – even though they’re in situations in which no one need know about those pasts at all. If Lost is about anything it’s about that:

Accepting the role that the pain in our pasts have in shaping us, but then refusing to be defined by that pain– and moving on.

I was quite struck by a scene in the season 1 episode called “Whatever the Case May Be.” In the scene, one character, Charlie, feels generally despondent, and specifically so because of something bad for which he feels responsible – plus there’s the whole drug addiction thing. He sits next to Rose, whose husband was in the tail section of the plane but whom she feels – knows – is still alive. Somewhere. This is their conversation:

CHARLIE: Your husband was in the tail section of the plane.

ROSE: Yes, he was. But he’ll be back.

CHARLIE: You think he’s still alive?

ROSE: I know he is.

CHARLIE: How?

ROSE: I just do. It’s a fine line between denial and faith. It’s much better on my side.

[Charlie starts crying.]

CHARLIE: Help me.

ROSE: Baby, I’m not the one that can help you… Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for bringing us together tonight, and we ask that you show Charlie the path…

I was struck by this scene, not just because of the fact that Rose prays, but also by what she prays – she begins, not with questions or complaints, but with thanks. There she is, crashed on a weird island with no sign of rescue, life as she knew it gone, and what’s she got to say to God?

These are all big themes and of course Lost deals with them in a pop culture way, but it’s actually a very good, accessible way for teens to encounter these themes – as well as others. What I’m finding is that Lost is a fantastic entry into conversations about a variety of themes and ideas we want our kids to draw out of written literature: symbolism, foreshadowing, character, tension, conflict. Yes, yes, it’s television, so it’s often quite on-the-nose, but you know what? That’s okay for teens. In fact – that clarity is good.

So, for example, earlier this week, it just so happened that my 16-year old read An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge for English class, and then the next day, we watched the episode of Lost called “Dave” in which the plot plays with the possibility – through two sublots centered on two different characters – Hurley and Locke – that what these characters are experiencing is not “real” – and is either just happening in their heads or is the consequence of a deliberate deception. Relating the story and the episode made for some good conversation, and then I have to go and throw in the whole St. Elsewhere Tommy Westphall issue, which left me with a lot of blank stares. So there’s that.

Here’s what I’m appreciating about Lost during this rewatch: it’s a show that accepts the transcendent and mystery and is respectful of religion and spirituality. It’s a show with a deep, deep heart, centered on the possibility of redemption and the necessity of connection and community. It’s diverse in a non-self-conscious way. It’s got mostly fantastic, interesting actors. The musical score is masterful. Those occasional final musical montages are killer. It’s funny. It’s fearless and crazy and intense. But then there’s that heart, and oh….not Penny’s boat.

I’m very interested in what it teaches me about the creative process – no, of course, not everything was planned ahead,and every step of the way creative choices were influenced by external forces: fan reaction, network notes, a writers’ strike, actors getting DUIs, an actor deciding he hated living in Hawaii…all of that is reassuring in a big way. No, you don’t have to have everything worked out ahead of time for something to work.

— 7 —

Early on, I warned my 16-year old, “Now don’t go online and look up Lost stuff, because it will just spoil it for you. You don’t want to know what happens before it does.” And he hasn’t although he’s said it’s been tempting. And then he said rather wistfully, “I kind of wish I were watching it when it was first on – it would be fun to go online and talk about it and read about what people think about it as they’re watching it.”

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6 Responses

I’m not a regular commenter, but I am a regular reader. This post represents all the reasons I come here to read what you write. I have not watched Lost, but now you’ve piqued my interest. And I just love that you are able to find transcendence and mystery in the show. I really appreciate your analysis of this show (and also your writing about books, in particular, too, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as your writing about the podcasts you like). Thanks for sharing.

My husband and I tried watching Lost when it was first on. We just couldn’t get into it. Now I’m thinking I should give it a shot with my teenage son. I’m always looking for things we can watch together. Do you think 14 is too young? I really don’t know anything about the appropriateness of the show. And I’d rather not read all the spoilers! Any advice would be great. (FYI, we let him watch Marvel movies, superhero movies, etc. violence and death, as long as it’s not over the top, don’t bother me as much as the sex and innuendo in tv shows and movies.)

Well, it sounds like you have similar boundaries as I do. the LOST world certainly takes out-of-wedlock sex for granted. This being network television, there is nothing explicit, but you do see unmarried characters in bed together in the morning, etc. There is mild cursing – Sawyer says “Son of a BITCH”….a lot. I think the Common Sense Media site might some detailed information about the content from that perspective. There are certainly a couple of scenes that I wish weren’t in there and the assumption of the okayness of non marital sexual activity is something that has to be talked about, but it certainly isn’t the dominant theme at all. Let’s put it this way – LOST has far less problematic elements than THE OFFICE….sigh.

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it! He is my oldest and figuring out what we will allow him to watch has been tricky. I tend to be overly cautious because, as a child, I was allowed to watch whatever was on tv. And that was when HBO first arrived in our house. After all these years, I still have horrible images imprinted on my brain! I’m trying to avoid that as much as possible.

On rewind now. A poignant look into broken lives forced to Live on that crazy island.
With polar bears and smokey and uh. Ben.
Watched it back in 2004-2010. Hard to belive 7 years later I can watch it, and still get emotional. Love how Sawyer went from hot badass to leader and caretaker. And He is my fave.

As a serious fan of LOST (and Sawyer), I enjoyed your retrospective. Once you finish with LOST, you might want to try binge-watching PERSON OF INTEREST, another long-arc series about the Big Questions. There’s no overt religious symbolism but PoI has a comparable Sin-Expiation-Redemption theme as LOST and keeps it under tighter control.The acting and writing are consistently excellent. (If you admired Michael Emerson’s work on LOST, he’s even better on PoI.) I’m confident that your boys can handle the content.

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July 2019

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